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J!Dump

Introduction

Advanced printr and vardump replacer with DHTML tree display. This utility makes life easy for developers and template designers. You use it to see what's inside a variable, an array or an object. Instead of using printr or vardump, you can now use dump. This will open a popup window with a nice expandable DHTML tree, showing the contents of the variable. It will even show a list of available methods for each object. You can use dump in your extensions, in the core, in libraries and even in templates.

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Advanced printr and vardump replacer with DHTML tree display. This utility makes life easy for developers and template designers. You use it to see what&#039;s inside a variable, an array or an object. Instead of using printr or vardump, you can now use dump. This will open a popup window with a nice expandable DHTML tree, showing the contents of the variable. It will even show a list of available methods for each object. You can use dump in your extensions, in the core, in libraries and even in templates.

I was making modifications on a module and mistyped the name of a method in my code. I came across a reference to J!Dump while browsing the Joomla! documentation and decided to install it. Installation of version 1.2 RC was flawless and after I added a few dump() commands in my code the popup and particularly the ability to view all available methods helped me fix my code in minutes. I can only recommend this extension to all developers.

It's perfect for development. Just don't forget to deactivate it on live sites.

I have never believed when any product has a perfect review, however this little jewel deserves it. I cannot imagine doing any Joomla! development, no matter how small, without access to this tool.

There are a couple of pointers that can save folks some trouble based on some issues I did encounter.

As of writing this, this component/plug-in does not work with Google Chrome. The JS that J!Dump uses to fire the pop-up is not successful in Chrome. IE8 works however, so go with that. Second, don't forget to publish the plug-in. I know, silly and it is stated in the instructions, but I gave up on the extension some weeks ago because I didn't follow those instructions. Once I worked through these environmental issues, I have found that Joomla! isn't as scary of a black box as I supposed.